Overview
Updated 30 Jan 2018, with new screenshots. Everything to get a new player started in Angels Fall First. Also gives people an idea what to expect from the game.
Introduction – Guide
I’ll be honest – this guide was written as an outlet of frustration. When I started playing AFF, the tutorial told me quite a bit, but told me nowhere near enough to fully understand why things on each of the maps are happening.
So, I’m therefore going to do what I always do and write a guide about it. The goal of the guide is thus twofold:
- To assist new players in avoiding the issues I did, and to document things for myself so I remember things
- To provide StrangelyInteractive with what I feel was missing from the tutorials. I strongly hope that one day this guide will become obsolete because the game teaches you all of this first
Did you find some wrong info on the guide? Please leave a comment so I can fix it. Accuracy is important to me. Individuals proven to be reliable, friendly, and have a high standard of quality may inherit this guide should I decide to stop playing the game and move on.
Also, apologies for the terrible screenshots: there was only so much I could do without access to the images behind the scenes.
Introduction – Angels Fall First
Angels Fall First is a highly ambitious first person shooter that aims to fulfill many, many roles. Players can fight one of four ways:
- Infantry combat, on the ground
- Vehicle combat, on the ground and in the air
- In space, using space fighters and bombers
- Capital ships such as corvettes, destroyers, and frigates, in space
Unlike other games, Angels Fall First does not use a class system. Instead, players can build their own classes (or more specifically, loadouts) on a budget. This budget increases upon ranking up. Currently, infantry, all ground vehicles, and space fighters are able to be customized in this manner. Capital ships and dropships cannot.
The game supports co-op against bots, and it is possible to host a Listen server by selecting choosing “Operations” and then changing “Offline” to “Internet” under the match parameters.
User Interface – In Combat (Ground)
On first joining a game, you will be prompted to choose which of the two factions you’re going to fight for.
Each team will have a short time to, if they choose, receive a briefing in the war room. Walking up to the main console and pressing F will open a briefing detailing the lore and the reasons for fighting, as well as detail the objectives of the mission.
Pressing F while standing at the door (as shown) will signal your readiness to start the game.
Each player can then nominate who the commander should be for the mission. To become the commander, you must vote for yourself for other players to nominate you. If you do not want to be the commander, do not vote for yourself.
The role of the commander is to direct squad leaders to objectives via the tactical map. Squad leaders can then set objectives for the players under them in the same manner.
Even if you weren’t nominated to be the overall commander, you still may be put in the leadership of a squad of four. If your name is at the top of the squad list (as shown above), you are the squad leader and need to issue commands to the remaining players.
To issue orders, open the tactical map and click on the other players in the squad. Right click on a map objective to set that player’s orders. If you are a commander, you can issue orders the exact same way, but to all of the squad leaders instead of your squad of four.
Setting obtainable objectives earns you Command points, as does completing the objective set to you. Always have commands set to your team to maximize your point earning potential.
Health is separated into armour and health. Both are displayed at the top right and will disappear if you are not being shot at. 
On Incursion maps, the attacking team must complete a series of objectives while the defending team must stop them. Shown is the amount of time remaining before the defending team wins, the status of the objectives (blue objectives are complete and at 100% when attacking; objectives are failed at 0% when defending), and the remaining number of stages remaining. Also shown is your current objective: “Freelance” is when no objective is set, otherwise it is indicated with “Task” as shown below.
On Territories maps, instead this shows the progress to victory for whichever team is in the lead. If the bar is blue, then your team leads; if red, the enemy team leads. Filling the bar ends the game in either victory or defeat. This bar also shows the status of the capture zones in Territories mode. The timer is the predicted amount of time one side wins.
Both enemies and friendlies can be targeted by pressing the G key. The two gauges underneath the reticle indicate the target’s current armour and health status.
When an objective is completed, the name of the objective will be noted, as well as the name of the person who completed it and whether they were on your team or the enemy team.
All spawn points are objectives and can be destroyed, which can be confusing when new players are on the attacking team. If an enemy “completes” an objective that is one of your landing zones, it means the enemy destroyed it.
User Interface – In Combat (Space)
In space, the HUD elements mostly remain the same. Similar HUD elements remain when you are driving a vehicle, and change only marginally when you are an infantryman.
The gauge on the left is your current engine power as a percentage. 100% means the ship is moving forward at full speed, while a negative number means the ship is moving backward.
The gauge on the right is your boost power. It requires a few seconds to recharge after being depleted. Use the Left Shift key to boost.
The GR indicator is either blue for when gravity mode is on, or yellow for when gravity mode is off. Gravity mode is described in the Fighters – Basics section of the guide.
The CM indicator is either blue for when your countermeasures are ready to be activated, or yellow for when it is on cooldown. Countermeasures can be activated with the Z key.
Unlike fighting on the ground, where shots travel nearly instantaneously and is played from the first person perspective, fighters are much more mobile and can move in several different directions. Players are thus given a target lead indicator to show where they must shoot to land a hit.
In cases where the target is flying directly at or away from you, you’ll find that the interface is similar to that on the ground. With swift fighters flying at high speeds and slower projectiles, the lead time can become far more dramatic.
In the case of larger capital ships in particular, the perspective of the camera can make firing on a small target a challenge.
In any case where you can move the camera faster than you can turn the ship, it is possible to separate the mouse cursor from where the ship itself is aiming. This is most prevalent on capital ships.
To score hits, you must aim the ship (as indicated below) at the target lead indicator (as indicated above).
User Interface – Spawning
Angels Fall First utilizes a system of Locations where players can exist. Each location may or may not have Deploy Zones where players can re-enter the battlefield upon dying.
On Ground Maps, this system is fairly simple: there is only one location and each consists of a number of deploy zones.
On Space Maps, however, the default location is a space zone.
Since players spawn as infantry, you cannot spawn directly into this space zone.
Click on the bottom two arrows to change the location to a capital ship.
Frigates, battleships, and dropships are locations that have deploy zones that all players can use. To reach the space map from a capital ship, you must locate the fighter bay and launch from it.
Smaller capital ships are considered locations as well, but only squad members can spawn into them.
Enemy capital ships can have spawn locations for your team if they have been boarded by a dropship.
Note that it is inadvisable to spawn into a dropship. Despite being only slightly larger than a fighter, dropships are their own land map locations just like a capital ship, only considerably smaller. Players who spawn into a fully manned dropship (having a pilot and two gunners) will be relegated as cargo for when the dropship lands on an objective or on an enemy capital ship.
Infantry – Basics
Most commonly, players on the ground will be fighting as infantry. AFF uses the traditional WSAD keys to move, and should be familiar to any PC gamer familiar with first person shooters. To aid you as a new player, you will receive a 50% damage reduction that scales off as you level up.
Note that bullets model penetration, and thus you can be shot through walls if the wall is thin or if the weapon has sufficient penetration. Hardpoint ammunition further improves penetration and damage, while elemental ammunition (incendiary, corrosive, shock) ammunition has no penetration.
Traditional first person shooter tactics apply to Angels Fall First – use cover, use the right weapon for the right job, and work as a team to ensure success.
Note that most weapons have damage falloff, and will lose power over distance.
Here are a few commonly misunderstood or missed points that are unique to Angels Fall First:
- The Z key toggles your flashlight.
- X toggles firemodes for multiple weapons, including explosives.
- The / key provides some additional in-game help.
- Players who have equipped high zoom scopes (see Weapon Attachments) can use the mousewheel to zoom in and out.
- Health refers to the red section of your health bar that does not regenerate.
- Armour refers to the yellow section of your health bar that DOES regenerate (popularized in other sci-fi shooters as “shields”)
- Shields refers to the shield bubble deployable and the temporary shields that all vehicles can temporarily use.
For additional information, see the UI explanations of spawning, infantry weapons, and UI on the ground.
Vehicles – Basics
Vehicles are granted to players when their score reaches a certain point. Below is an example of a vehicle being allocated to a player. It is likely that “points” refers to the sum of all three point pools (Command, Combat, and Support)
Below shows the text that appears when a vehicle is available to the player.
Opening the map with Esc, or holding down C and using the mouse rosetta menu, will allow you to accept or decline the vehicle. If you accept, the vehicle will be airdropped behind the lines with you inside.
Vehicles can be broken down into four categories. Each of the two sides – the Antarean Imperial Army and the United League Army – have one vehicle in each category.
Players should be sure to equip the Multitool when piloting a vehicle, as vehicles tend to soak up large amounts of fire from opponents. Retreating to repair is a very good idea, especially with a high value vehicle such as a main battle tank.
Ensure that the front of your vehicle faces the enemy as much as possible, as attacks to the rear cause extra damage.
Includes the Antarean IVii Silverback and the United League’s LV1 Hare. These two vehicles support two passengers, a gunner, and a driver. Designed chiefly for flanking manoeuvres and fire support, Light Transports can be defeated easily by concentrated fire and dedicated anti-tank weapons.
The United League’s Velius and the Antarean Gheist light mechs fill a combat role in between a light vehicle and a tank. While nowhere near as heavily armoured as a main battle tank, they are much more mobile, are smaller, and can reach tighter areas where tanks have trouble.
These vehicles are equipped with two vehicle weapons, and must switch between the two. It is currently impossible to fire both weapons in tandem.
Includes the Antarean IHTiix Basta and the United League’s HT6 Turtle. Although stated to be armoured personnel carriers, they tactically fulfill the role of Infantry Fighting Vehicle instead, providing fire support to the troops it deploys.
These vehicles can take a lot more punishment than the Light Transport. It is also much more heavily armoured. In addition to a rooftop mounted weapon, both vehicles sport powerful weapons for the driver.
The United League’s MBT60 Partisan and the Antarean IAiii Dhaka are tanks equipped for a driver and a gunner. As with other tanks in first person shooters, the tank driver also gains control of the turret, while the gunner uses whatever turret weapon the driver has equipped.
As the Dhaka is a hovertank, it can strafe back and forth to dodge attacks. Its main cannon fires explosive balls of plasma with a considerable splash radius. The Dhaka is thus a superior choice when engaging enemy infantry.
The main cannon on the Partisan is powerful, it also has a very small splash radius. This makes it chiefly an anti-vehicle weapon.
Against infantry, tank commanders must instead either rely on the passenger’s weapon or on a coaxial machine gun that the driver can use.
These close air support gunships are available exclusively for ground assaults. Both the United League’s SG16 Sturm and the Antarean Empire’s IGxix Locust are highly flexible gunships designed to support infantry.
Like space fighters, Gunships can turn on and off gravity mode with the middle mouse button. Turning it off lets the gunship hover and fly like a helicopter, while turning it on has the gunship fly like a traditional, fixed winged aircraft.
The Sturm is unique in that it can be equipped with a tail gun that is chiefly AI controlled. The driver’s cannons, however, have very little splash radius and do not converge on close targets, so the weapons are mostly designed to defeat enemy armour.
The Locust has no tail gun, but has four extremely powerful plasma cannons that cause considerable damage to slow moving targets such as drop pods. What the Locust’s weapons lack in projectile speed, they make up for in splash damage.
Fighters – Basics
Several maps in Angels Fall First take place in space. Players will spawn as infantry, usually close to a hangar.
Sometimes, players will instead warp in from a distant base. In this case, locate and fly to a warp beacon (as shown) to go to warp and head back to base for repair and rearming.
The most important concept to understand when flying is to use the middle mouse button to toggle between gravity mode on and off. With gravity mode on, the craft will operate like a traditional aircraft and continue flying in the direction the nose is pointing. With gravity mode off, however, the craft adopts Newtonian physics in space. As there is no air in space, it is possible for craft with gravity mode off to fly in one direction and shoot in another. It also allows craft to stay at boost speeds without firing the booster, so disable grav mode when you have a considerable distance to travel.
Other commonly missed controls, as well as miscellaneous tips:
- Q and E are used to roll the craft, though this is not often used.
- The period key is used to change view.
- New pilots can easily forget to switch weapons with the number keys.
- Do not forget to reload.
- The Z key is for your countermeasure.
- The N key is used to target specific subsystems of enemy capital ships, such as primary weapons, point defence weapons, and engines.
All fighters are also equipped with mine launchers. Use these to either dissuade the enemy from getting near a point, or during a dogfight to help track a particularly mobile opponent.
The United League Rapier and the Antarean Iret are thin-skinned fighters with two slots each for electronics and armour. They are extremely manoeuvrable, but lack firepower and are armed with only one cannon.
The United League’s Sword and the Antarean Firefly fighters fill in the gap between light fighters and bombers. The Sword and the Firefly are reasonably manoeuvrable and sacrifice an electronics slot and mobility in favour of heavier armour.
Armed with dual cannons, Swords and Fireflies are capable of dealing much more damage than the standard inteceptors.
The Katana and the Salamander are the most heavily armoured fighter craft in space. Their damage is not much more significant than the standard fighter, but their heavier armour means they stand a much better chance against dropships and bombers. However, smaller fighters can fly rings around them.
The United League’s Scimitar and the Antarean Rakshasa are bombers and are responsible for destroying enemy capital ships in space.
The main feature that separates bombers from heavy fighters is the Heavy Weapons bay slot, which usually contains torpedoes. It can also be exchanged for a heavy plasma weapon (Antarean Empire only) or a railgun (United League only) similar to the anti-vehicle weapons found on their infantry. Torpedoes travel very slowly but hit particularly hard. Use the lead time indicator to successfully land torpedo attacks.
Despite being heavily armoured, bombers should avoid going toe to toe with capital ships. The AI is extremely accurate and can easily defeat a bomber at longer ranges. At close range, however, bombers become considerably more dangerous to capital ships.
Bombers may also choose to equip a tail gun in the secondary turret slot that makes them extremely difficult to approach. The AI is a very good shot in their tail guns, and a large formation of bombers flying together can mutually cover each other from fighter support.
These bombers have considerable armament but cannot reenter hyperspace to rearm if they run out of ammunition.
Progression
Progression in Angels Fall First is located on three separate tracks: Combat (red), Command (yellow), and Support (blue).
By gaining experience in each of these tracks, players will level up in these categories. Upon gaining sufficient experience, players will rank up, gain a medal, and the ability to equip more tools and weapons on their character.
When viewing the loadout screen, the number of points available in each category is shown at the bottom right corner of the screen.
By ranking up in each of the trees, they will gain additional points to spend on weapons and armour. By default, players are allocated 100 Combat points and 50 each Support and Command points to their loadout budget. Each Combat rank grants an additional 10 points to the Combat budget, while each rank of Support and Command grants an additional 5 points to its respective budget.
These points are tracked across a lifetime career, and will persist across servers.
Combat is the most straightforward track to level up. Experience in this track is gained by damaging and killing opponents, whether in space or on the ground. Kills award around 5 XP, with particularly hard-hitting weapons providing up to 15 XP.
Although kill assists are not currently implemented, it is likely that kill assists will contribute towards this track.
Command points are granted to players who follow the orders of the commander. Each team is divided into several squads – each with a leader and all of which are under the direction of the Milnet AI (default) or another player. The commander is nominated at the beginning of the round, and can be mutinied against should the rest of the team feel the commander is inadequate.
Completing objectives as a follower and setting attainable objectives as the commander will net you large amounts of Command experience.
Support experience is gained chiefly by healing, resupplying, shielding teammates, and turret kills. Spawning inside a friendly capital ship and repairing the various modules as they take damage is a good way to gain large amounts of support experience. Ensure you equip the Multiwrench tool (see Infantry – Weapons & Loadout Options below).
Note that repairing an empty vehicle does not grant Support experience; another player must be inside the vehicle to receive Support experience.
The end of game scoreboard is ordered by the sum of all point pools for each player. A player with 10 points of Combat, for example, will place lower on the board than a player with 4 points in all three categories.
Infantry – Weapons & Loadout Options
To alter your loadout, click on the SETUP option in the main menu.
As there are no infantry classes, the only option available to you is to choose the United League and Antarean Empire infantry options, and then create loadouts that fulfill the traditional FPS roles.
To equip a weapon, click on the weapon slot to change, and then on the weapon’s portrait in the resulting menu. Clicking on its text does nothing.
For additional information on the budget system, see the Progression section of this guide.
Weapons are divided into seven categories.
- Melee
- Sidearm
- Primary
- Secondary (interchangeable with primary)
- Explosives
- Kit
- Kit (interchangeable with above kit)
Your armour is also customizable, containing up to five slots for various equipment.
You can also pick up weapons from downed enemies. Shown in the below charts is the full name; when picking up a weapon, however, it only shows a portion of the full name. What is displayed in the field is bolded.
Armour comes in three varieties: Light, Medium, and Heavy.
Light armour has three slots for helmet upgrades and two for body upgrades, while the Heavy armour has three slots for body upgrades and two for the helmet. Medium armour has only four slots, two each for the helmet and the body.
Heavy armour runs slightly slower than light and medium armour.
Armour upgrades do stack, so stack armour upgrades to allow for maximum suvivability in the field.
Helmet modifications thus far include:
- Improves the likelihood the player will become incapacitated instead of dying outright.
- Incapacitated players may be revived with the multiwrench (below).
- Personal motion sensor tracks infantry targets.
- Stack multiples for a faster scanning speed.
- Decreases motion sensor, tripmine, and autoturret detection radius.
- Also reduces the duration you are on enemy sensors when spotted.
- Improves helmet armour, mitigating effectiveness of headshots.
Body modifications include:
- Reduces the effectiveness of enemy incendiary and EMP weapons, reducing your armour.
- Adds an extra clip to each weapon’s primary fire mode.
- Reduces armour.
- Reduces explosive damage taken.
- Useful against grenade spamming opponents.
- Reduces armour.
- Improves player agility while decreasing armour.
Currently, the only available melee weapon is the Sonic Knife. It can attack in one of two ways – the left mouse button swings it, while the right mouse button performs a charged attack that can dispatch opponents quickly.
The most notable sidearm is the KMD Multiwrench. It can revive downed teammates, repair capital ship subsystems, repair a friendly infantryman’s armour, and repair friendly vehicles.
Other sidearms include:
- Slow firing revolver.
- High stopping power.
- High aim requirement.
- Medium range sidearm.
- Fastest firing pistol.
- High magazine capacity compensates for comparatively low damage.
- Appears to be more accurate.
- High power sidearm.
- Slow fire rate.
- High stopping power.
- Small clip size.
- Described as a “space desert eagle”.
- Close quarters submachine gun.
- Low stopping power, high rate of fire.
- Can be equipped as a primary/secondary weapon.
- Is currently identical to the TA, unique stats not applied yet.
- Close quarters submachine gun.
- Low stopping power, high rate of fire.
- Can be equipped as a primary/secondary weapon.
- Slightly more expensive than YAS.
- P4 has lower raw damage but fires much faster, reloads faster, and can be equipped faster.
Infantry – Primary Weapons
Primary weapons include both the YAS, and the TA/P4 from the sidearms list, as well as these new weapons:
- Basic carbine.
- Average rate of fire.
- Effective at medium range.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Basic carbine variant.
- Fires in four round burst or single shot.
- Effective at medium to long range.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Pump action shotgun.
- Faster rate of fire than shotguns in similar games.
- Effective at medium to close range.
- Available exclusively to the United League.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Semiautomatic shotgun revolver.
- Faster rate of fire than ASG10.
- Effective at medium to close range.
- Available exclusively to the Antarean Empire.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Assault rifle.
- Slow rate of fire.
- Effective at long range.
- P6I fires faster and is superior in close quarters to the DK11A.
- Additional DK11 information here.[www.affuniverse.com]
- Additional P6I information available here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Plasma assault rifle.
- Fires faster than DK11A.
- Effective at medium to long range.
- May overheat if fired continuously.
- Available to the United League only.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Plasma assault rifle.
- Fires large spheres of explosive plasma.
- Effective at medium range; long range requires considerable lead time.
- May overheat if fired continuously.
- Available to the Antarean Empire only.
- Secondary firemode consumes more ammunition for a slower, harder-hitting projectile.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Cluster grenade launcher.
- Fires a series of grenades.
- Switch fire modes to toggle between sticking (default) and bouncing grenades.
- Inaccurate, but hits very hard.
- Hold LMB to load the launcher.
- Light machine gun.
- Does not overheat.
- Extremely mobile for an LMG.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Light machine gun.
- Overheats if fired continuously.
- Fires quickly, very mobile.
- Available exclusively to the United League.
- Additional information here[www.affuniverse.com]
- Light rotary machine gun.
- Takes a few seconds to spin up, and will overheat if fired continuously.
- Available exclusively to the Antarean Empire.
- Additional information available here.[www.affuniverse.com]
- Bolt action sniper rifle.
- Does not reload, and thus does not benefit from the Reload Spec.
- Stacking Weight reduction improvements allow for this to be a highly mobile sniper rifle.
- Additional information available here.[www.affuniverse.com]
- Semiautomatic sniper rifle.
- TS20 has much better much better DPM (same damage as P8 but is semiauto) and is more accurate but requires reloads.
- Sikfrit L9R charges up when the user is aiming down sights (gauge to the right of crosshair)
- Additional TS20 information available here.[www.affuniverse.com]
- Additional L9R information available here.[www.affuniverse.com]
- Shoulder fired anti vehicle weapon exclusive to United League.
- Produces a visible red laser when locking onto target.
- Press X to switch fire modes from Heavy to Light.
- Heavy mode requires a lock on and cannot pre-charge the weapon without locking on.
- Light mode causes less damage but does not require a lock on.
- Instantaneous laser-like effect.
- Additional information available here.[www.affuniverse.com]
- Shoulder fired anti vehicle weapon exclusive to Antarean Empire.
- Fires missile that separates into multiple smaller guided submunitions.
- Always fire in guided mode where possible, as dumbfired missiles do not split.
- It is possible to lock onto a target and then fire in a different direction to fire above obstacles or around cover.
- Press X to switch fire modes.
- Additional information available here[www.affuniverse.com]
Infantry – Weapons & Loadout Options Cont’d
- Allows the player to equip and throw a variety of grenades.
- Players can carry up to four grenades.
- Smoke grenades create thick smokescreens to conceal friendlies; use to create cover.
- Flash grenades blind and disorientate all players in their area of effect (incl. friendlies)
- Chemical grenades create acid, which damage armour and prevent sprinting.
- EMP grenades disable enemy HUD, vehicles, and turrets. Additionally, weapons capable of overheating will overheat.
- Incendiary grenades create large fires that both obscure vision and cause damage. Opponents can be set on fire if they attempt to cross the flames.
- Fragmentation grenades explode with a five second fuse.
- Hold the mouse button to “cook” the grenade. After 5 seconds, the grenade will detonate.
- Grenades can be customized to have multiple effects crossing over; for example, a frag grenade that also sets the area on fire.
- Ammo packs only restock once, for a total of 8 grenades; visit spawn room to clear this block.
- Both remote and proximity explosives.
- Changing fire modes (X) turns them into proximity mines.
- Right clicking brings up the detonator. Left click with the detonator out to detonate all explosives.
- Charge types include smoke, flash, chemical, incendiary, EMP, and fragmentation (see above).
- Detonator will detonate all explosives regardless of proximity or remote firemode.
The kit slot is chiefly used to support teammates and construct automated defensive turrets. All deployables persist until the player is incapacitated.
- Thrown motion sensor. Detects all enemies within its area of effect.
- Releases several pings to detect enemies; is not continuous in detection.
- Adheres to any surface.
- Heals all nearby infantry.
- Enemies can co-opt the medpack.
- Hold down the left mouse button to deploy.
- Can have up to four deployables at once.
- Replenish stock by visiting spawn room.
- Replenishes the ammunition of all nearby infantry.
- Enemies can co-opt the munitions pack.
- Hold down the left mouse button to deploy.
- Can have up to four deployables at once.
- Replenish stock by visiting spawn room.
- Produces a blue (United League) or orange (Antarean Empire) bubble that protects teammates from most fire.
- Does not interrupt friendly fire.
- Shield flickering effect can inhibit aim from inside the shield.
- Automatically engages nearby hostiles with a flamethrower.
- Has only a few metres of range; deploy in close quarters.
- Small profile, difficult to hit.
- Equip in both kit slots to deploy two simutaneously.
- Only one can be deployed per slot.
- Automatically engages nearby hostiles.
- United League’s autosentry fires high-velocity plasma bolts, like a machine gun.
- Antarean Empire’s autosentry fires fast-moving spheres of explosive plasma.
- Small profile, difficult to hit.
- Equip in both Kit slots to deploy two sentries simutaneously.
- Only one can be deployed per slot.
- Has a deceptively long range; use to lock down corridors and choke points.
By clicking on the slots beneath applicable weapons, it is possible to modify the performance of weapons to suit the user. Scopes are very flexible and are recommended on all weapons. Magnification is available from 2x to 7x, with the 7x sight being capable of zooming in and out with the mousewheel.
Ammunition types also come in a variety of flavours. These include standard, acidic, armour piercing, incendiary, and EMP rounds. See the N8D Grenade System for further details on these effects. Ammunition also is available in the Hardpoint variety, which causes less damage to shields but has far superior penetration – allowing it to strike through thin cover or hit multiple targets.
Also available are different weapon modifications, such as an improved weapon switch speed, faster reloading, and improved cooling for weapons that can overheat. Attachments include underslung flamethrowers and rockets, and a personal shield projector.
Vehicles – Loadout Options
Customizing vehicles is equally important. Although most vehicles have fixed weapons that cannot be changed, several lighter weapons are able to be altered to provide more flexibility.
For additional information on the vehicles themselves as well as the fixed weapons, see the Vehicles – Basics section of the guide. This section will review the weapons that can be altered to the player’s preferences.
Electronic upgrades include:
- Increases enemy lock on time and reduces spotted duration.
- Identifies enemy mines.
- Does not indicate enemy missiles.
- Identifies nearby enemies, range unknown.
- Equipping multiple increases range and scanning rate.
- Improves armour repair rate while out of battle.
Chassis upgrades include:
- Reduces effectiveness of enemy EMP weapons.
- Adds an extra clip to every weapon’s primary firemode.
- It is unknown which weapons use different ammunition for different firemodes.
- Unknown effect on missiles.
- Gain additional booster duration and recharge rate.
- Removes an unknown amount of armour.
- Improves craft resistance to gunfire.
- Presumably has no effect on missiles.
- Reduces amount of boost time on equipped vehicles.
- Reduces damage from enemy missiles and mines.
- Presumably has no effect on gunfire.
Additionally, craft may be equipped with countermeasure systems. Currently the only option is the Shield Generator, which absorbs a certain amount of damage for a set duration. It is activated with the Z key (default).
- Equivalent to the MNL grenade system used by infantry.
- Fires a cluster of four grenades in an arc.
- Grenades adhere to surfaces and enemies before exploding.
- Equivalent to the EVR used by Antarean infantry.
- Also found on the roof of the Basta APC.
- Fires slow moving balls of plasma that explode.
- Alternate fire mode consumes more ammunition for a slower, heavier-hitting projectile.
- Available only to the Antarean Empire.
- Equivalent to the DK31 used by United League infantry.
- Highly accurate and fast firing with high projectile speed.
- Overheats quickly if fired continuously.
- Machine guns also found on United League and Antarean Empire space fighters.
- Kaller VC 25mm requires short spin up time to fire at maximum rate of fire.
- Rocket pod, fires a series of four slow moving rockets that explode.
- Effective for saturation fire or static assault.
- Identical in performance to the Antarean Empire’s MLI missile launcher.
- Can only be fired in lock on mode.
- Identical in performance to the United League’s infantry-held RID.
- Can be used in lock on or dumbfire modes.
Fighters – Weapons
Fighters, unlike capital ships and dropships, have their own customization options. Players can equip a variety of missiles and guns on their fighters, as well as modifying the fighter itself.
Similar to the suits, aircraft can equip electronics and hull upgrades. Each craft has different numbers of upgrade slots:
- Light fighters have two each.
- Medium fighters have two hull slots and one electronics slot.
- Heavy fighters and bombers have one of each.
- Increases enemy lock on time and reduces spotted duration.
- Useful on smaller, nimbler craft that can dodge gunfire.
- Identifies enemy mines.
- Does not indicate enemy missiles.
- Identifies nearby enemies, range unknown.
- Equipping multiple increases range and scanning rate.
- Improves armour repair rate while out of battle.
- Reduces effectiveness of enemy EMP weapons.
- Adds an extra clip to every weapon’s primary firemode.
- It is unknown which weapons use different ammunition for different firemodes.
- Unknown effect on missiles.
- Gain additional booster duration and recharge rate.
- Removes an unknown amount of armour.
- Improves craft resistance to gunfire.
- Presumably has no effect on missiles.
- Reduces damage from enemy missiles and mines.
- Presumably has no effect on gunfire.
Additionally, craft may be equipped with countermeasure systems. Currently the only option is the Shield Generator, which absorbs a certain amount of damage for a set duration. It is activated with the Z key (default).
The bread and butter of space fighter combat, primary weapons consist of fighter-mounted guns and cannons.
- Close quarters machine gun weapon.
- Low cost, with minimal customization options.
- Space fighter mounted shotguns.
- Effective at close range.
- Fires high velocity spheres of energy.
- Alternate firemode consumes more ammunition for a slower, harder-hitting projectile.
- Available only to the Antarean Empire.
- Fires high velocity energy bolts.
- Overheats quickly if fired continuously.
- Fighter version of the DK31 infantry weapon.
- Available exclusively to the United League.
- Default machine gun.
- Overheats quickly when fired continuously.
- High projectile speed and rate of fire, but low damage.
- MGA2 takes a few seconds to spin up before firing at maximum rate of fire.
- Extremely hard hitting cannon.
- Most effective against dropships, enemy drop pods, and capital ship components.
- Fast reload time assists with low clip size, necessitating frequent reloads.
- Unlike other starfighter gun weapons, does NOT support different ammo types.
- Directed energy weapon projecting a large beam of energy at targets.
- Similar to the charge beams found on capital ships.
- Hold down fire button to charge, then release to fire.
- Autocannon similar to C90.
- Considerably higher rate of fire and projectile velocity.
- Easier to use against swifter targets.
- Supports multiple ammo types, unlike C90.
Note: Currently, the drop pod at the back of the dropship interferes with missile locks. Try to use guns instead.
- Two 4-chambered rocket launchers.
- Effective against corvettes, destroyers, and enemy capital ship components.
- Standard guided missile launcher.
- Tracks decently, but can be outmanoeuvred.
- Can lock onto as many as two opponents at once.
- Fires a swarm of eight rockets simultaneously.
- Difficult to avoid.
- Can lock onto as many as eight opponents at once.
- Advanced guided missile launcher.
- Tracks decently, but can still be outmanoeuved.
- Can lock onto as many as two opponents at once.
- Slow, heavy-hitting missile.
- Extremely difficult to avoid.
- Fires only one missile at a time, but can fire thirteen missiles before requiring a reload.
- Effective against fighters, bombers, and capital ship components.
Unique to bombers, the Heavy Bay loadout slot features weapons designed to defeat enemy capital ships and their smaller corvette and destroyer escorts..
- An unguided torpedo effective against the largest and slowest capital ships.
- Smaller capital ships can dodge the torpedo.
- Railgun weapon similar to vehicle and infantry held railguns.
- Used by United League only.
- Considerably less damage output than torpedoes, but has an instantaneous effect.
- Fires spheres of plasma at targets.
- Medium velocity, but still faster than torpedoes.
- Effective against smaller escort ships.
- Used by Antarean Empire only.
Dropships & Boarding
Frigates and battleships can be boarded by dropships, found in certain space maps. Dropships will spawn most commonly onboard another carrier, though they will also spawn on bases in territory mode to ensure that one side has dropships even without a capital ship.
Several other missions feature boarding actions done on space stations and other ground installations. The battles will then shift to infantry combat on board the station. Currently there are no maps which feature space-to-planetside landings.
The two dropships in the game are the United League’s Dragoon and the Antarean Empire’s Cricket. Both are spawn points for infantry while flying in space, though with only two gunner locations it is generally inadvisable to spawn on board a dropship without prior instruction.
To board a target with a dropship, first acquire the boarding target by pressing G with your crosshairs on it. A door icon will appear, indicating the breach point. Fly your dropship close to it, dodging both enemy fighters and the capital ships’ guns. When close, reduce speed until a yellow ring appears around you with the text “Press F to board”.
You will then be able to press F to automatically initiate the docking. A dialog will appear asking whether you want to re-deploy to participate in the boarding action. To join, press F and run to the end of the dropship and wait there until the boarding is complete.
Note: If you do not run to the back of the dropship in time, you will not be transferred to the enemy capital ship to continue the assault. The rear door will remain locked, as the boarding pod will have launched without you in it. Your only options now are to either respawn in the boarding pod (via the Tactical Map) or attempt to fly the dropship back to your battleship and pick up a new boarding pod.
Players will then use the breach point created by the dropship as a spawn point. Once onboard an enemy vessel, they can then attempt to destroy it from within.
Consoles indicating the guns, engines, and shield generators can be found throughout the ship. Ships have signs to point players to objectives. It is also possible to steal enemy fighters and bombers from the hangar bay.
The real goal, however, is to quickly sink the ship from the inside. To do this, the boarders must destroy the core, located at the stern of the vessel. To reach the core, the attacking team must destroy a series of Engine Lockouts scattered throughout the vessel. Destroying the lockout consoles leaves the core vulnerable. The lockouts, the weapon consoles, and the core itself are vulnerable to all forms of damage, including the knife.
Destroying the core will result in the destruction of the ship. Players are granted about 30 seconds to find a fighter in the hangar bay and escape the ship’s demise. Otherwise, they may simply respawn elsewhere.
In case the boarders have secured their breach point with autocannons, mines, and other defences, it is possible to destroy the breach pod from the outside. Launch a fighter and scan either the port or starboard beam of the ship (usually closer to the bow, but almost never underneath or on top) for the drop pod. Destroy it with gunfire to bypass the defenders on your ship and remove their spawn point.
There are no alerts for your team if your vessel is boarded. Players can tell if a friendly ship has been boarded by checking for attack objectives on the outer edges of the ship’s hull on the tactical map, as shown below.
Capital Ships – Corvettes
In addition to battles between fighters, various capital ships also fight for space superiority. Much like vehicles on ground maps, players must press F1 to spawn in a new capital ship when prompted.
As with fighters, capital ships have both boost as well as gravity mode on and off. Turning off gravity mode allows capital ships to stay at boost speeds for longer, helping them get to the front lines faster.
Frigates and battleships also act as spawn points, and it is generally a good idea to have a squad man a capital ship or at least act as its escorts.
It is currently not possible to escape from a destroyed capital ship, unless it is a battleship or frigate that has a fighter bay.
All capital ships have shields, which can be activated with the Z key. As they are only online for a short duration, timing the activation of your shields is the key to winning against another capital ship. Similarly, time your own attacks so that they strike when the opponent’s shield is down.
Capital ships are mostly vulnerable to bombers, which can easily fly rings around them at close range. They can also confuse the gunners by drifting in and out of their firing arcs. However, at a distance and one-on-one, capital ships have a massive advantage with their high damage output and good accuracy. Bomber pilots must coordinate their attacks with their team and preferably from behind an asteroid to maximize the chances of a successful strike.
The corvette class consists of the Antarean Ti class and the United League’s Griphon class.
- Helm (Ion Cannon, AFX, Mines)
- Vulcan
- Vulcan
- Medium Plasma
- Medium Plasma
- Helm (Medium Missiles, AFX, Mines)
- Medium Plasma
- Medium Plasma
- Vulcan
- Vulcan
Capital Ships – Destroyers
Destroyers are a considerable step up from corvettes, and are primarily designed to combat other large vessels. Each faction has one destroyer class: the Antarean Empire’s Javert class, and the United League’s Rejkhart class.
- Helm (Torpedoes, 2M Medium, Mines)
- Ion cannon
- Cannon
- Cannon
- Cannon
- Cannon
- Helm (Ion cannon, 2M Medium, AFX, Mines)
- Ion cannon
- Heavy Plasma
- Heavy Plasma
Capital Ships – Cruisers
These two vessels are similar to, and were formerly a part of, the destroyer class. They consist of the Antarean Chons class and the United League Heimdall class.
- Helm (Ion Cannon, 2M Rocket, AFX, Mines)
- Ion Cannon
- Ion Cannon
- Medium Missile
- Medium Missile
The biggest weakness of the Chons is that all of its weapons are concentrated on the bow, and cover barely any of the aft quarter. The Chons is mostly therefore an escort vessel and must rely on larger vessels to do the heavy lifting.
- Helm (Ion cannon, 2M Medium, AFX, Mines)
- Cannon
- Cannon
- Heavy Plasma
Capital Ships – Frigates
Frigates are large and capable warships with their own fighter bay. They are second only to the battleships in terms of size and capability. Their firepower chiefly consists of smaller weapons to protect against fighters and bombers, though their tough armour doesn’t make them sitting ducks to other capital ships either. Like battleships, frigates are vulnerable to being boarded by dropships.
The four medium plasma weapons, designed to add chip damage against larger vessels and protect the Ranger against bombers and fighters, are located fore and aft of the ship, one each on the dorsal and ventral sides of the ship. The railguns, on the other hand, cover only the dorsal section and are located port and starboard respectively.
- Helm (Ion Cannon, 2M Missiles, Mines)
- Medium Plasma
- Medium Plasma
- Medium Plasma
- Medium Plasma
- Railgun
- Railgun
- Helm (Ion Cannon, 2M Missiles, Mines)
- Cannon
- Cannon
- Vulcan
- Vulcan
- Medium Plasma
- Medium Plasma
Capital Ships – Battleships
Consists of the Antarean Anubis class and the United League’s Huginn class. These are the largest vessels, sporting multiple high caliber guns and their own fighter compliment. These craft are usually objectives, and losing a battleship will sometimes end the mission.
Battleships are heavily armoured and armed, and are nearly indestructible from the outside. They are most vulnerable to dropships. To help compensate, the engine core of both the Huginn class and the Anubis class are protected by engine core lockout consoles that must be destroyed to make the engine core vulnerable.
The railguns are in two sets of two, located on the port and starboard sides covering the ventral and dorsal sides. The vulcan machine guns, usually firing in five round bursts, can be toggled to fully automatic. Two of these machine guns cover the dorsal side of the Huginn class and are located fore and aft. The last machine gun covers the forward ventral section of the ship.
- Helm (Ion Cannon, 2H Missiles, Mines)
- Railgun
- Railgun
- Railgun
- Railgun
- Vulcan
- Vulcan
- Vulcan
This multitude of plasma weapons makes it very effective against other capital ships. Plasma weapons however have a relatively low projectile velocity, making it tougher to use against smaller ships.
- Helm (Ion Cannon, 2M Missiles, Mines)
- Heavy Plasma
- Heavy Plasma
- Heavy Plasma
- Medium Plasma
- Medium Plasma
- Heavy Plasma
- Heavy Plasma
Maps – Game modes
Angels Fall First currently supports two game modes – Incursion and Territories.
Incursion, otherwise known as the objective-oriented mode, progresses through a series of stages. The defending team must stop the attacking team and wear down the timer, while the attacking team must progress through the two to three stages of the map and complete the final objective in order to win.
For Incursion maps, continue reading for additional information on objectives.
Territories instead is a simpler territory control mode. Five control points exist on the map, and each slowly adds to the controlling faction’s progress bar. Once one faction’s progress bar reaches 100%, they are victorious.
The following maps are available in the Territories mode:
Remember that space maps – with the exception of Mazikeen – also feature close quarters ground combat as boarding actions on board capital ships.
Maps – Errah: Incursion
Attacking Team: United League
Defending Team: Antarean Empire
The United League must first capture three pump controls. Two are located on an elevated platform above a large pump overlooking some water. The water is not deadly and is safe for swimming. A pair of stairs allow access to the platform, but will be heavily defended as chokepoints by the Antarean team. The ULA team must climb two flights of stairs and cross a small ramp to access these points.
The third point is in a small garage slightly behind the first two objectives. While it is closer to the defender’s spawn, it has fewer chokepoints and is more accessible to vehicles.
The attacking team’s vehicles will have trouble contributing to the fight on the platform, but they can attempt to use a ramp close to the third point to secure the rear.
Once these points are captured, the ULA team may capture two forward landing zones.
The next point is the reservoir control located at the top of the ramp. The attacking team should use the ramp to try to get vehicles into the fray, but be wary of mines.
The second two points are inside an abandoned outpost. The outpost has two points: one inside a garage on the second story and another inside the barracks. Although the area is accessible to vehicles, the indoors are badly lit and players should be wary of ambushes here.
As with the previous stage, the United League may now advance and capture the final two landing zones for the final assault on the town.
The final points are located indoors on the second floor of three buildings. Two points are located on the top of the admin spire, tucked away in two offices. The remaining two are across the street from one another, located in a pair of office buildings.
This area has several mounted turrets, making it a dangerous proposition for vehicles. Infantry are small and can oftentimes outmanoeuvre the turrets. The long streets provide long sightlines while the interior buildings provide close quarters engagements.
Maps – Fortress: Incursion
Attacking Team: United League
Defending Team: Antarean Empire
The first targets for the attacking team are the Fire Control and Tracking Scanner objectives. Both objectives can be captured by simply standing in a capture zone.
The tracking scanner is located in bunker at the base of a large satellite dish. It is perched on top of a hill, making direct assaults difficult. The defending team’s spawn, however, is relatively far away.
The fire control center is located not far from the center drop pod, and is located in the control center of a massive plasma cannon battery. The attacking team must fight up a gentle incline, a ramp, and a flight of stairs to reach the battery control room. There is a large loading zone that lacks cover, so the defenders can use turrets, snipers, and cover to protect the fire control.
Hacking these two points forces the defending team back closer to the fortress itself, and allows the attacking team two forward spawns – one up the hill from the tracking scanner, and another in the open loading zone near the plasma battery.
The United League may then begin their attack on the fortress proper. They must cross a craggy, rocky depression while dodging sniper fire, defending soldiers, vehicles, and five stationary gun emplacements. Three of these gun emplacements are on either side of the main entrance, and fire cannon shells with considerable splash damage. The gun, however, can damage itself if used improperly. The third stationary gun is a rocket turret above the main entrance. Also guarding the flanks are plasma turrets.
The attacking team must now charge the front entrance and place hacking spikes on two door consoles to each side of the main entrance. These will open the side doors and allow the attacking team inside the walls. Once inside they must climb the ramp in either tower and reach the third floor. The third floor contains the main door controls on a walkway just above the door. Hacking this objective open will allow the United League inside the fortress.
As with the previous objective, capturing the main doors allows the United League to move their landing zones up to the base of the walls.
The final chance for the Antarean Empire to stop the United League is at the Officers Quarters in a building at the back of the fortress, near a landing pad.
The fastest route for the attacking team is to charge through the warehouse, past the shipping crates, and past the walls surrounding the Officers Quarters, and make it to the second floor of the building. Craftier United League players may consider attacking on the flanks, by running along the right wall around the perimeter, and then using the ramps to access the second floor directly.
On the second floor is a room with a flat, circular device. Standing around this device is enough to capture it and win the game for the United League.
Maps – Igneous Platform: Incursion
The attacking team is the Antarean Empire, and the United League must defend.
The Antareans must secure two objectives – Igneous Secure A and Igneous Secure B, while protecting their single drop pod from a United League counterattack. The United League has three spawn points – ULA West, close to the objective, ULA South, which is more distant, and the Elevator Building, the furthest spawn point.
The Antareans have two options when spawning – to continue forward and hug the ledge, closer to ULA South, for a flank attack – or to advance through the tunnel, attacking the objectives head on.